96 BOOK REVIEWSapartheid South Africa's destabilisation of neighbouring countries eventhough, by 1995, apartheid was no more. These problems arise, of course,out of the fact that the papers incorporated in the book were writtenseveral years before 1995.These minor errors notwithstanding, The Mining Sector is a significantand welcome contribution to Southern African economic discourse and auseful addition to the growing scholarship on the political economy of theregion in general and the history of the mining sector in particular.University of Zimbabwe A. S. MLAMBOTraditional Healers and Childhood in Zimbabwe By Pamela Reynolds.Athens, Ohio University Press, 1996, 183 pp., ISBN 0-8214-1121-7.The author must be congratulated for tackling a task that badly neededattention. The book deals with traditional healing as it relates to childrenand childhood in Zimbabwe. We knew very little about the role of childrenin the practice of traditional medicine in Zimbabwe. The first chapterexamines the process of acquiring traditional medical knowledge. Likemany of us, Professor Reynolds is impressed with the amount of technicaland other kinds of knowledge that traditional healers have. On thepossession of technical knowledge, she observed that many traditionalhealers know an impressive amount about flora and fauna. They have awide range of information and show fine discrimination in their observationand classification of leaves, stems, roots, fruits, flowers and bark. They areable to distinguish plants on the basis of taste, touch, smell and theirappearance across the seasons.The author sought to discover from whom, at what age, with whatleeway for Innovation, and in accord with what checks and balancestraditional healers learn the use of plants, symbolic systems, and socialand psychological analysis. The findings are interesting. The author hasshown that much of this knowledge is not acquired in adulthood; somechildren are provided the opportunity and encouragement to acquirespecialised skills and information to do with healing.There are many traditional healers who claim that much of theirknowledge is revealed to them in dreams. Chapter 2 traces Zezuru healers'dreams as part of the repertoire available to them for the constitution ofself and for the direction of others. In addition she sees the use of dreamsas part of their strategy for coping with contigencies of their upbringing.Dreams are also viewed as a part of the description of self and help tomake connections between personal problems and the burden of an epochbetween the present and the past.97Traditionai healers In general flayed a part during and after Zimbabwe'sWar of Liberation between l#70ifind 196®Chapter 8ig^ms a» abediffit^ofthe part traditiorjal heaters played; it ateo deals especially with children'ssuffferteg andthe part theyplayedth th«fight fw fre^ofti^Marty^hikifensuf fered a great deal during the war; they d4splayed their distress after thewahTh«attthorsh»wsthat>^before. On the part of older people this madness was also due, at least inpart, to the fact that mainy spirits of people whoto&& not beengivencorrect ritual burials or whose deaths resulted from acts of wrongdoing
remained unsettled. Traditional healers responded to their need largelyby mediating between the spirits and the community. On returning fromthe war, many men and women, who had fought on either side visitedhealers to be cleansed. Traditional healers provided opportunities through
ritual for reconciliation and the soothing of individual trauma.Chapter 4 largely deals with the problem of evil with particularreference to the exposure of children to evil. The author also discussesinnocence and identity. On the problem of evil the author comes to theconclusion that children learn from adults. She writes:Bear in mind that while I sat and talked with n'anga or watched themdivine, treat patients, collect and prepare medicines, discuss cases, andconduct rituals, children were almost always thereŠwatching, listening,and sometimes participating. Children are aware of their elders' ideas ofthe canker of evil and they collect their own stock of lore about evil.The last chapter examines in more detail the learning process in thefield of traditional medicine. It compliments the previous chapters. Thechapter shows that in many cases children are selected for medical trainingearly in their lives; they serve their apprenticeships by acting as acolytes.The chapter shows how they eventually become healers.Professor Reynolds did her fieldwork in three areas of Mashonalandin Zimbabwe. She obviously got to know well the people she worked withand was able to analyse their actions in depth. I am impressed by hersympathy towards and deep understanding of the men, women and childrenwho are the subject of this book. In my view her greatest contribution hasbeen the study of the process of acquiring traditional medical knowledge.The role of dreams in traditional medical practice did not, in my view,receive adequate attention. There are some traditional healers who denythat they were taught to identity certain plants; they claim that thistechnical knowledge was revealed to them in dreams. In other words inhis or her dream the person is shown the place in the bush where themedicine is to be found. The next morning he or she goes there to find the
herb. I have accompanied to the woods a number of people who had
dreamt about a cure for a certain ailment. In all the cases in which I havetaken part, the herbs discovered in this way have turned out to be useful.98 BOOK REVIEWSProfessor Reynolds did not, in my view, test this hypothesis adequately.She had the opportunity to examine this aspect.The book, however, remains an important text for those involved inthe study of African society. The author has tried, I think successfully, topresent her material in a language that ordinary men and women, whohave no knowledge of psychology or social anthropology, can understand.University of Zimbabwe PROFESSOR G. L. CHAVUNDUKA